What Changed on 8 August 2026
On 8 August 2026, AIMA brought its family reunification option back online after taking it off the contact channel for technical improvements, and it published a new, objective eligibility rule for minors: the child must be provably on Portuguese national territory on the date the application is submitted. In AIMA's own wording, "o menor deve estar, comprovadamente, em território nacional na data em que o requerimento seja apresentado" — the minor must be demonstrably on national territory on the date the request is filed. This reverses the assumption many families held, that the online platform was the way to bring a child who is still overseas into Portugal. In this phase, the portal is for reuniting a child who is already here, not for initiating the arrival of one who is abroad.
The change matters because it decides which door you use before you assemble a single document. AIMA is running the process at scale — the agency has been scheduling tens of thousands of family reunification appointments and delivering thousands of residence cards to family members already in the country, and it has repeatedly described family reunification as an operational priority. But that throughput is concentrated on in-country cases. A parent who registers a child still living abroad on the online platform will not have that case accepted through this channel, and time spent preparing an online submission for an overseas child is time lost. Reading the rule correctly at the outset is the single most consequential decision in the process.
The On-Territory Test: What It Actually Requires
The test is simple to state and strict in application: on the day you submit, the minor must already be inside Portugal, and you must be able to prove it. It is not enough that the child intends to travel, holds a booked ticket, or is en route. The relevant moment is the submission date, and the evidence must place the child on national territory on or before that date. This is why the criterion uses the word comprovadamente — provably. AIMA is not asking for a declaration that the child is here; it is asking for documentation that a reviewer can verify against a fixed date.
In practice, this means sequencing the child's physical arrival before the platform registration, not after. Families who register first and plan to fly the child in later have the order backwards under this rule. If the child entered on a short-stay Schengen visa or visa-exempt entry, that legal entry is the anchor for the on-territory proof, and the reunification application is then made from within Portugal. Because the test is date-specific, keep every dated record of the child's presence — the entry stamp, the arrival boarding pass, and any registration completed after arrival — so that the submission date is unambiguously covered. Where a child's status inside Portugal is itself borderline, it is worth getting advice before submitting, because a submission that cannot survive the on-territory check simply will not be accepted through this route.
Which Regime This Applies To: EU vs General
The on-territory rule applies to the European regime — the reunification of a minor with a family member who is an EU citizen — which in Portugal is governed by Law 37/2006, the statute that transposed EU Directive 2004/38/EC on free movement. It does not govern the general regime under the Foreigners Law (Law 23/2007), which is the framework used when the sponsor is a non-EU resident holding a Portuguese residence permit. The two regimes run on different platforms, ask for different documents, and rest on different eligibility logic, so identifying yours first prevents an application that is filed in the wrong system entirely.
The distinction is easy to get wrong because both are colloquially called "family reunification." Ask a concrete question: is the family member the child is joining an EU citizen exercising free-movement rights in Portugal, or a non-EU national resident on a Portuguese residence permit? If the former, you are in the Law 37/2006 European regime and this notice's on-territory test applies to the minors platform. If the latter, you are in the Law 23/2007 general regime, where reunification with a minor is one of the categories still available in-country, but the procedural detail and the documentary checklist differ. Our guide to the documents to apply at AIMA as the non-EU family member of an EU national walks through the European-regime paperwork by relationship type, and the complete AIMA family reunification guide covers the general regime.
If Your Child Is Still Abroad: The Routes That Remain
If your child is still overseas, the online minors platform is not your route in this phase, and the correct path is the consular family reunification visa. Under this route, the family reunification application is lodged and the entry visa is issued through the Portuguese consulate that serves the child's country of residence, so the child enters Portugal already authorised rather than trying to convert a presence that does not yet exist. This is the long-standing mechanism for bringing a family member who lives abroad, and it remains open even though the AIMA online platform has been narrowed to in-country minors.
Choosing the consular route deliberately, rather than defaulting to the online platform, avoids the dead end of an unaccepted submission. It does mean engaging with a consulate and its processing times, and it means the sponsor in Portugal must meet the reunification conditions — a valid residence title, adequate accommodation, and the means-of-subsistence and other requirements that apply to the case. Families sometimes face a genuine strategic choice: bring the child in first on a lawful short-stay entry and then use the in-country minors platform, or run the consular visa from abroad. The right answer depends on the child's current status, the visa options realistically available to them, and how the timing interacts with the sponsor's own permit. Where the parent's own residence route is itself in flux, read it alongside developments like the move to close the parent-of-minor-child residence route before committing to a plan.
How Automatic Scheduling by Registration Order Works
Scheduling for the biometric-data appointment is now automatic and assigned in order of registration on the platform — there is no phone call to AIMA and no self-service slot booking. Once a valid application is registered, AIMA works through registrations in sequence and notifies the applicant of the appointment when the case reaches the front of the queue. This removes the old scramble for a manually booked appointment, but it also means your position is set by when your complete registration lands, not by how persistently you chase the agency afterwards.
The practical implication is that preparation and timing are the levers you control. Because ordering is by registration date, a complete, correct submission entered promptly earns an earlier place than one delayed by missing documents or a failed on-territory proof. There is no advantage in registering early with an incomplete file — under AIMA's complete-application approach, a defective submission does not hold a place the way a clean one does, and it can force you to start over. The winning strategy is to have the child lawfully present, the on-territory evidence dated and in hand, and every document ready, then register once, correctly, and let the automatic queue do its work. If you need to reach AIMA about a registered case, use the documented channels rather than expecting to phone your way to an earlier date.
How to Prove the Child Is in Portugal
Because the test turns on documented presence on a specific date, assemble evidence that independently places the child in Portugal on or before your submission date. The strongest records are the ones AIMA and other Portuguese institutions generate: the entry stamp or the arrival boarding pass, a Portuguese school enrolment (compulsory schooling for minors is itself an obligation once resident), a health-centre or SNS registration, an address registration such as an atestado de residência from the junta de freguesia, and a NIF or NISS obtained while the child is in the country. Any one of these that is clearly dated helps; together they build a record no reviewer can dispute.
Order the child's arrival and these registrations before you submit, not after. A child who has just arrived may not yet have a school place or an SNS number, but the entry evidence alone establishes presence, and the institutional registrations can follow. Keep copies in a single dated file so that, if AIMA queries the on-territory point, you can answer it in one reply rather than reopening the case. If you are also preparing the underlying reunification file, build it against the relevant regime's checklist — see the two-year residency rule explainer for the general-regime waiting-period exceptions that apply to minors — and complete the platform submission in a single uninterrupted session once everything is in hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my child need to be in Portugal to apply for family reunification through AIMA in 2026?
For applications through AIMA's Family Reunification of Minors online platform under the EU regime, yes. As of the August 2026 notice, the minor must be provably on Portuguese national territory on the date the application is submitted, and applications for a child still abroad are not accepted through the online portal in this phase. A child overseas goes through the consular family reunification visa at the Portuguese consulate serving their country of residence.
Which law does the on-territory rule apply to?
It applies to the European regime — reunification of a minor with an EU-citizen family member — governed by Law 37/2006, which transposed EU Directive 2004/38/EC. It does not govern the general regime under the Foreigners Law (Law 23/2007), used when the sponsor is a non-EU resident. Identify your regime first, because the platform, documents, and eligibility differ.
How is the AIMA biometrics appointment scheduled now?
Automatically, in order of registration on the platform. You do not phone AIMA or book a slot. After a valid submission, AIMA processes registrations in sequence and notifies you of the appointment. Because ordering is by registration date, registering promptly with a complete file affects your place in the queue.
What proof shows the child is on national territory?
Dated evidence such as the entry stamp or arrival boarding pass, a Portuguese school enrolment, a health-centre or SNS registration, an address registration (atestado de residência), or a NIF/NISS issued while in Portugal. The test is tied to the submission date, so keep documents that place the child in Portugal on or before that date.
Was the family reunification form actually offline before August 2026?
Yes. AIMA had removed the family reunification option from its contact channel for technical improvements and restored it on 8 August 2026, together with the published minor on-territory criterion and the automatic scheduling model. If you tried to apply while it was down, register again now that it is live; the on-territory test applies to the new submission date.